What does the Cross mean in your life? What has the work of Christ done to you?
The church lost the meaning of the cross and has placed many different things in its place.
The cross of Jesus Christ is central to the Christian faith.
The cross reveals us the character of God: His love for lost sinners and His perfect justice both meet at the cross.
If we want to grow in our love for God, which is the first and greatest commandment, then we must grow in our understanding and revelation of the cross, which shows us His great love.
If we want to grow in godliness, we must grow in our understanding of the significance of the cross, which confronts the way we live, the cross confronts our pride, our carnality and our sins.
The cross reveals the love of God. Love is the explanation of the universe. This earth, this universe, is not just a series of accidents but all proceeds from the love of our Father God.
You’re not an accident, you’re part of a divine eternal plan conceived in love.
In Deuteronomy 7 Moises is trying to tell the people of Israel why God chose them and why God loves them.
“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. 7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 7:6-8
God didn’t choose me because I was so great, so wonderful, so talented or righteous I was the least insignificant, the least important, the most unlikely.
Have you ever noticed how God likes to choose the unlikely people?
If I look at my life I can see it, before I had an encounter with God I lived a very carnal, self-pleasing, godless life of addictions, drunkenness and immorality.
But in 1985 I had a dramatic encounter with the Lord Jesus, and I came to know Him in a very personal way and was called into His service, to be a witness of His power.
When you see somebody who seems really unlikely, just keep praying for them because God will use them!
Moses said to Israel: God didn’t choose you because you’re better, because you’re special, because you’re righteous, because you’re great! Why did He choose you?
The answer is verse 8: It was because the Lord loved you and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt (satan)
Why does the Lord love you? He loves you because He loves you! That’s the bottom line!
The unexplained love of God is the greatest single fact of the universe and no one will ever understand it! Don’t try to find reasons why God loves you, just believe that He does!
If you don’t have understanding and revelation of the cross you never will be able to experience the love of God because the love God has for you and me was demonstrated at the Cross.
I want to suggest that you try to see Jesus as the man who made the purchase and bought you. You and I were lost and heading to hell because of our sins.
“who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
Titus 2:14
Jesus gave himself at the Cross to redeem you from every kind of sin and to make you His very own, His possession, totally committed to doing good deeds!
Do you know what does the word redeem mean?
Redeem means to buy back, redemption is buying something back. Jesus bought you, He paid a very high price at the Cross!
You were satan’s slaves, Jesus bought you and now you’re Jesus’ slave, you belong to Him!
This is the reason that you are nowhere in church, you’re in the kingdom of God, you’re serving Him because you don’t belong to yourself! You have an owner, you have a Lord, you have a Savior, you have a Redeemer!
Those who believe in the cross and have a revelation of the cross don’t live for themselves but Jesus!
The Cross gives me pleasure to serve the Lord.
“For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:19-20
Do you know why so many people don’t like prayer meetings, don’t spend time with God, are not faithful in their tithes and offerings, some Christians are not faithful to Sunday Services meetings and some Christians don’t want to serve in the Church?
Because they didn’t yet have an understanding and revelation of the Cross of Christ!
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
You either are crucified with Christ or you are enemy of the cross!
“For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.”
Philippians 3:18-19
The way you live determines if you are either crucified or enemy of the cross!
To be an enemy of the cross doesn’t mean you are against Jesus, to be an enemy of the cross means you live only for you.
Where are you investing in your life? Where are you setting your mind, your plans and goals for the future?
The church missed the meaning of the cross and has put many things in its place. If we get diverted from the cross all other blessings cease to have any real significance.
There are Two Basic Problems within Christian Churches and Christian Lives:
- We have displaced the cross from the centre
- We have displaced Jesus from His position as the head of the Church and as our Lord.
Not until we make the Cross central again, Jesus will never have His right position as head of the Church.
When Jesus was crucified, Satan believed he had the final victory. But he discovered the opposite, the death of Jesus on the Cross was the foundation for his complete defeat.
Through the Cross, Jesus administered total, eternal and irreversible defeat on satan!
A total, eternal and irreversible defeat!
If you were in satan’s position and you discovered that through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, everything that you had been seeking to achieve was defeated and all your power was taken from you, what would you do?
The only option left to satan was to obscure the work of the Cross and to keep God’s people from realising what had been accomplished for them on the cross.
This is precisely what satan has sought to do for the past 2,000 years. The main problem of the church come when satan is able to obscure our understanding of what Jesus has accomplished for us by His death on the cross.
This is why Paul the apostle wrote to the Galatians. Do you think some of us here could ever be foolish? Maybe this could apply for some of us!
“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.”
Galatians 3:1
If you read a little further on you will discover that these believers in Galatia had received the Holy Spirit, and had God working miracles in their midst, still Paul said to them : You have been bewitched!
Paul said: the same force has bewitched you, blinded you, made you unable to understand what God has done for you.
How did Paul know that they were bewitched?
He says verse 1 : “Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.”
What was the evidence that they had been bewitched? They could no longer see the reality of the crucifixion of Jesus.
A satanic power moved into what had once been a vigorous spiritual church and robbed them of the understanding of the cross.
Two results follows wherever this happens, let’s see in the next verses:
“I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?”
Galatians 3:2
Notice they had received the Spirit! What was the diagnosis? They were relying on the works of law!
They were no longer relying on the sovereign operation of the Holy Spirit. They were living in legalism.
Legalism is a term that Christians tend to use to criticise other Christians.
Legalism is attempting to achieve Godly righteousness by keeping a set of religious rules.
Christianity is not a set of rules! We don’t achieve righteousness with God by keeping any set of rules.
The second diagnosis is in the next verse :
“Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” Galatians 3:3
They began in the Spirit but they were trying to finish in the flesh, the word for flesh is carnality!
So here are the two identified problems: legalism and carnality!
What is the source of these two problems? The fact that the cross was obscured. They lost sight of what was really accomplished for them by the cross.
If you are not willing or not able to accept righteousness by faith as a gift from God, the only alternative in human thinking is to keep a set of rules.
The tragedy then comes: verse 10 – this is the final diagnosis
“For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.””
Galatians 3:10
The three results of the obscuring of the cross are: 1- Legalism, 2- Carnality 3- Curse
Beloved brothers and sisters, I have been preaching in many nations, in different churches and different denominational and I have seen that many professing Christians face these two problems: legalism and carnality.
When people don’t have a revelation of the cross, they became selfish, proud – they start living in legalism, carnality and as a result there is a curse resting over these professing Christians!
The believers in Galatia had once received the Holy Spirit, and they had seen God work miracle but still they became blind and enemies of the cross.
Be aware of fighting on your own efforts, living for yourself, doing the best you can do with your little plans, your organisation, your programs to please yourself – What are you saying to God?
God it was nice to have the Holy Spirit for a while but I do better on my own way, I can do better, I can lead my own life and I want to follow my plans!
You’re snubbing God! It is an insult and affront to God – That’s why He pronounces a curse
Many Christians have gone back to relying on their own selves , their desires , their abilities, their plans , their own way of thinking!
We are praying for revival, but revival will never come to people who do things their way, by their own wisdom, own ability, own plans and desires, those who are not prepared to let God intervene.
The Cross of Christ make servants that lives for Him. The cross delivers us from our sins, from our desires, our own plans and guides us to the eternal plan of God.
Beloved brethren, most of the choices God makes for us are not the choices we would make ourselves. So we can either have our way or God’s way, but we cannot have both.
After Paul the apostle diagnosed the Galatians’ problem: The Cross obscured, legalism, carnality and a curse, he comes to the remedy.
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
Galatians 3:13
There is a way out for you and for the body of Christ! It’s through the Cross!
There is no other way release from the curse, except the way that God provided. On the Cross Jesus became a curse. The curse of the broken law came upon Him!
If you could picture Him hanging there, between heaven and earth, rejected by His fellow man , rejected by God His father , stripped naked , bleeding, then maybe you could begin to have some idea of what it is to be under a curse.
He was made a curse so that we might be redeemed from the curse! This is the principle of the exchange which is the whole basis of the Cross: Jesus took upon Himself our rebellion, He also endured all its evil consequences.
He was punished so that we might be forgiven, He was wounded so that we might be healed , He was made a sinner so that we might became righteousness with His righteousness.
He died our death so that we might share His life. He endured our poverty so that we might share His riches.
He was made a curse so that we might be redeemed from the curse and receive the blessing.
Even some Christians in churches are under curses! We have to deal with the curse! I had to dealt with the curse in my own life, I too once grieved the Holy Spirit of God and committed the Galatian’s mistakes of legalism, carnality and tried to live by my own little plans, ideas and principles.
Some Christians are doing the very things God has pronounced His curses!
Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying the situation is hopeless!
What I’m saying is: there is only one remedy and it’s God’s remedy !
God provided salvation at the Cross – but only those who born again can be saved.
God provided healing at the Cross – but only those who believe are healed.
God provided blessings at the cross – but you need to get out the curse by taking the Cross.
Are you crucified with Christ? Are your old man/woman dead with Christ? Or are you living for yourself?
May God forgive us from the sin of carnality and legalism and for grieving the Holy Spirit. Because many began in the Spirit but they were trying to finish on the flesh or living in carnality!
Today we need to repent and to turn from our sins of: legalism, carnality, selfishness, pride, rebellion and repent from trying to live for ourselves and not for God’s kingdom.
May God bless you.